Mamdani pitches property tax hikes if Albany doesn’t fix $5.4B budget gap  

To plug a more than $5 billion budget gap, Mayor Zohran Mamdani sees two options: Either raise taxes on corporations and New York’s wealthiest or increase property taxes by 9.5 percent while tapping into the city’s reserves.  Gov. Kathy Hochul has rejected the former, which requires state action, and the latter, which Mamdani unveiled Tuesday as part of his administration’s preliminary budget, swiftly drew criticism from landlord groups.  “This proposal, coupled with Mamdani’s pledge to freeze rents for four years, virtually guarantees the physical destruction of tens of thousands of units of housing,” Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York […] This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.